TRAM PLANNING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 28, 2 August 1923, Page 8

TRAM PLANNING

CIRCUIT AND DUPLICATION

SYSTEMS

JVAKEFIELD STREET EXPRESS

ROUTE

PROPOSED RUTUBE DEVELOP- .; MENTS.

'Among ths works listed in proposal No. 2, street works, of the City Loan Schedule; of 1920, are permanent road surfacing in Clyde quay square, Victoria, Wakefield, and Hunter streets, and in propoßai No. 3, tramways, a new track through' Victoria and Wakefield streets. The two works are inter-depei)dent, and plainly the tramway construction must come first, that a permanent surface may not be laid down to be torn up again in a Jew- weeks or months. The distinctive feature 1 of the new tram route through Wakefiel.l and Victoria streets will be that it. will end in a round-about loop ■which will enable cars to be run down ond' v up, .again without the necessity of ch^ilging round trolley poles and the altering of seats and curtains, and the lilte^alfd tile main objects of the laying of "the. Une will be to provide an express service to and' from the' city's business';,cehtre, and. to do away with the risk/of> serious traffic hold-up by a had'smash, a big blaze, or the like in Willis".'or Manners streets. The loop, then, "will be such a one-way return is there is now at Newtown Park or Lvall Bay,-but on a bigger scale, and the proposed line a parallel to the existing lino fr,'6m L'ambton Station to Courtenay place, bearing a big share of the traffic row carried through the shopping streets anil, capable of carrying all passengers in "the event of a breakdown, smash, or other disastrous cause of hold-up, or, for that matter^ while lines are being renewed.

■ Originally the plaiy laid before the council provided for >a comparatively small loop. The new line was. to run down from Courtenay place through what will be better recognised under its official .title of.Clyda. quay square, when permanent surfacing and other improvements ttre effected, along Wakelield street, crossing the' Wallace street line at. Smith and Smith's corner, to the Public library, and then down Victoria street till Hunter street js reached. TKus far the lines will be double-track, tut at." Hunter street the'two sets of rdils will cross over and fork out, the in-car line switching over to the right between E. W. Mills and Sargood's warehouses,'and so to Jervois quay and mcrely'round the block, up Courtenay place to Hunter street, and then with a turn to.the right back to the cross-over fork, and so back to Courtenay place on the out-line.

i; ;_;THE MODIFIED ..PLAN. - :Such,;a loop wQuM.cejUinly_tfev 0 given a;>;<juick^ return on the one-way traffic principle, but serious fault -was found •with' it' on the grounds that' it merely took people to Post Office square, where comparatively few passengers wish to alight, .returned to Victoria street without .runing past picking-up places, and ■thirdly,', that it would cut across Post Office-square with its ceaseless vehicular traffic from the main wharves entrance. The modification agreed upon by the council gets-over these objections in the majn, and takes. tW .car's to the spots where folk will be waiting for them. The m-car ■ will- run-as.- first proposed from \ ictoria street to Jervois quay, but will continue down the quay as far as Johnston street^ along which it will turn to join up with the Lanibton quay outtrack at Kirkcaldie's corner. At that corner in-cars will become out-cars, and Tvill run up Lambton quay as far as tho Union Bank cornw, where the Hunter street.' extension' will carry them back over the cross-over fork to the out-line' pf the double track of, Victoria and AVakefield streets.. : TRAILERS.

■ The loop will be single-track, the route •proper double, and, in the case of Newtown cars running -down- Wakefield street, it may be that Wellington will yet see trailers on the line, for there will'be a-return loop at either end of the run and there will be straight work —no uncoupling and recoupling and shunting over switch loops—ahead of the motor-man. There is also a loop at Lyall Bay, and it is likely enough that another may some time be at Island Bay, but there are also pretty stiff pinches on both those runs, and unless the Public Works Department sees fit to lift the ban on trailers over hilly routes, trailers are not for those runs.

;-- The"'cross-over fork at the north end of Victoria street would not commend >tse!i but for the fact that it is essen--tiiil if cars are to run according to the ■rule of the road, for drivers of other would protest violently were <Jhey-;asked ,to. observe one rule for the «ity generally and a special rule for :V\ akefield and Victoria streets, and, y;hen they had done protesting, -would 4uvo on,'as-before to the left and end ;in violent collision and protests through ihe Courts. The crossed fork could be m Victoria street were in-cars io run down Lambton quay and up Jervois quay, but. that would merely mean .a still more awkward crossing of the outline on Lambton quay by the in-line :from Hunter "street.

:. Johnston street will, probably, becoino 4o some extent a temporary parking .street care being held there in readinest Joj- a few minutes before shops and ofiiccs close for lunch or for the day in order, to-step out lively immediately the ,ir«tue, rush .commences. I DUPLICATING MAIN KOUTES. ■T Thus _" the'city will bo served by a dou.ble- main track system, but by that time j\ewtown and the other southern suburban residents will probably have the .Choice of one of two routes, as far as ■oonn street, at any rate, since the" ex-" 1 .tension of • the - Wallace street lino will ■?E *«£?• --Ty-,tr l fficli ow running round th-e-BaSm. tateroh", If the Raroa road route becomes a fact and no longer cause tor- argument-whenever'a Karori man 3iieets any other man, Karori will also 'be taken home to lunch or tea by the route that suits it best, up Sydney street and past the Gardens, or through ■Avo street. - - D

" T^re are more -big- works ahead "of She Tramways Department, and one of the most important, though it is not like■iy to be undertaken for some consider--able time, probably not till the new 1-aiiway station is built, eight, ten perhaps more years ahead, will provide a .second city round-about loop in conjunction with the station scheme. For that ■purpose, it is proposed that Stout street j-unning down from Lambton quay at the .Arcadia corner past the main entrance .of the Supreme Court, .shall bo extended by taejopening-up of the land at the ■back of'the Government Buildings; that as, the extension will run between the buildings and the new telephone exchange, and cars will then run down .i'eatherston street, turn along Bunny aimh.and,ppjhe.loop to rejoin the present lines w Lambton quay at the Arcadia or Public Trust corner tionoTTV" aSk'd: Why the inlrodno

very considerably simplifying their construction, and, quite obviously, very considerably reducing their cost. Again, even if two-day cars are run, the loops will mean a. big saving in annual upkeep, for though it may not cost a very noticeable fraction of a penny to swing round one trolley polo once" and slam over a dozen or so seats, and likewise raise the guard rails on one side and lower them on the other, these fractions of pence added together at the end of the year of 360-odd running days for all cars make up a very tidy little bill for continual minor repairs and paint and varnish.

Plans are out, somo approved, some yet to be approved, for the cutting-off of sharp corners on several of the present routes, and though these are minor works, the effect upon the service, as a whole, is very great, for sharp curves spell expense, and may theaten danger; for instance, that bad old curve on the Island Bay run, which could not take a couple of double-deckers, one in either direction, was a danger spot if ever there was one, but a cutting-away of that particular corner, Luxford's corner, has done away with that danger. With big works and steady improvement of existing routes, Wellington's tramway service will be vastly different m ten or fifteen years' time from what it is to-day.